More Wisconsin Counties Issue Marriage Licenses To Gay Couples

By
Carlos Santoscoy
Published:
June 09, 2014

The number of Wisconsin counties
issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples grew to 12 on
Monday.

Hundreds of gay couples married over
the weekend in Milwaukee and Madison after a federal judge on Friday
declared invalid Wisconsin's 2006 voter-approved constitutional
amendment prohibiting state officials from recognizing any union
other than a heterosexual marriage.

Most of the state's 72 counties were
still turning away gay couples on Monday, but the list of counties
issuing marriage licenses to gay couples grew to 12, including
Milwaukee County, Waukesha County, Kenosha County, Dane County, Rock
County, Dodge County, Outagamie County, Brown County, Green County,
Jackson County, Door County and Appleton County.

Officials in Eau Claire County said
they have yet to make a final decision on the matter.

Unlike clerks in Milwaukee and Madison,
Outagamie County Clerk Lori O'Bright said she would not waive the
state's five-day waiting period.

In handing down her ruling, U.S.
District Judge Barbara Crabb declared the state's restrictive
marriage ban unconstitutional but also gave the ACLU, which is
representing the 8 plaintiff couples in their challenge, until June
16 to tell her what parts of the law it wants her to block.

Crabb has scheduled a 1 PM hearing on
an emergency motion to stay the ruling filed by Attorney General J.B.
Van Hollen. Hollen, a Republican, also turned to the 7th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, filing an appeal to the ruling and
asking it for a stay.

“The State's interest in enforcing
its own laws and in ensuring administrative clarity, as well as
individual interests in certainty regarding marriage, demonstrate the
irreparable injury that is likely to occur in the absence of a stay,”
the
state said in its filing.